Questions & Answers about Hon tjänar mindre pengar och har färre skulder.
Why do we use mindre with pengar but färre with skulder?
Just like in English, Swedish distinguishes between things you can not count and things you can. Pengar (money) is treated as an uncountable mass, so we use mindre (less). Skulder (debts) can be counted (one debt, two debts), so we use färre (fewer).
Wait, I learned that pengar is a plural word. Shouldn't it use the countable word färre?
It is true that pengar comes from the plural of en peng (a coin). However, in modern Swedish, the word pengar as a general concept is treated as an uncountable mass noun, exactly like the word money in English! So you always use lite (a little) or mindre (less) with it.
What are the base forms of mindre and färre?
Mindre (less) is the comparative form of lite (a little). Färre (fewer) is the comparative form of få (few).
What is the singular form of skulder?
The singular is en skuld. It belongs to the group of Swedish nouns that add the ending -er to make the plural.